1) Fat Reduction
Obesity is becoming a huge problem for appearance and for health. Many pharmaceutical companies are developing drugs for people to lose weight. Liposuction is one major remedy to get rid of excess fat, with 700,000 operations each year in the US. However, liposuction is very invasive and cause major side effects. Cellulite cream is a non-invasive method to improve appearance of body areas, which have excess fat. But there is no effective cellulite cream out on the market. The current cellulite cream potentially shrinks the fat cells temporarily, not eliminating them.
Liposuction is a procedure that removes fat under skin mechanically using vacuum (at one negative atmosphere). Cosmetic industry uses liposuction to remove excess fat at specific areas of the male and female human body. Liposuction easily causes infection, bruises, contour deformity, and mechanical damage to tissue under skin. Thus liposuction using mechanical force is not desirable.
Cellulite is a big problem for people. While the current crop of products claiming to reduce or eliminate cellulite is rapidly increasing, research regarding their efficacy remains at a bare minimum. Overall, the research states loud and clear these products don't work but sadly, the lure of these potions is hard to fend off. In fact, according to the American Academy of Dermatology, cellulite is the body's natural way of storing fat in adult women. For some women, especially very thin women, cellulite may only be visible by pinching skin, while for the vast majority of women, some amount of cellulite is always visible.
Cellulite is assumed to be caused by the accumulation of fat cells that protrude or are interlaced with possibly weakened layers of skin. Many companies selling anti-cellulite products have referred to this as “imprisoned fat,” which is actually a decent analogy. What is definitely true is that women are far more prone to cellulite than men, most likely because they have more subcutaneous fat cells in their hips and thighs (Source: Journal of Applied Physiology, April 2002, pages 1611-1618).
There is a lengthy list of products claiming they can be rubbed on the skin and then some how free body fat and improve skin tone to eliminate or reduce the appearance of cellulite. Despite the popularity of these lotions and potions, two questions remain unresolved: (1) the lack of any formulary cohesiveness between products, and (2) any support that these products work (Source: Skin Research and Technology, May 2002, pages 118-124). The European Journal of Dermatology (December 2000, pages 596-603) reviewed 32 cellulite products containing between 4 and 31 ingredients that had few similarities. “Forty-four different botanicals and 39 different emollients were used in the 32 products. Caffeine, present in 14 products, was the most common additive, apparently representing an ‘active’ ingredient. In other respects the compositions of the products were similar to those of skin creams.” Cosmetics companies are throwing in random plants without any proof they can help, and yet the suggestive claims are there to entice consumers to try yet another miracle anti-cellulite potion.
Aminophylline, a prescription bronchodilator (opens lung passageways), gained notoriety as an ingredient in cellulite creams as a result of a study published in Obesity Research (November 1995, Supplemental pages 561S-568S). However, doubt about aminophylline's value was revealed by a study published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (September 1999, pages 1110-1114), which described a double-blind study that compared the effectiveness of three different treatments for cellulite on three different groups of women. So, aminophylline appears not to be the answer for cellulite, though it still shows up in some cellulite creams.
Caffeine is used as an ingredient in cellulite creams because of its distant relationship to aminophylline. There are two studies showing caffeine to have benefit for cellulite, but one was conducted by Johnson & Johnson, which owns RoC and Neutrogena, both companies that sell cellulite creams that contain caffeine, and the other was conducted by cosmetic ingredient manufacturers that sell anti-cellulite compounds (Source: Journal of Cosmetic Science, July-August 2002, pages 209-218). There is no other independent research showing that caffeine provides any benefit for treating cellulite, nor research pointing to how much caffeine is needed to produce results.
2) Scar Reduction
Scar is formed by overgrowth of collagen after wound healing. Most of the scar reduction products contain silicone in a sheet or gel format, and onion extracts (Mederma Skin Care products). It usually takes over 3 months to see some effect, because these products do not contain effective active ingredient such as any form of collagenase which targets the cause of scar formation.